Thierry Henry accused of 'downplaying' Cristiano Ronaldo's legend as Man Utd icon Rio Ferdinand identifies possible cause of apparent feud between pair

Rio Ferdinand has accused Henry of having "beef" with Ronaldo because he simply doesn't praise the Al-Nassr star as passionately as other pundits. Of course, Ferdinand played with Ronaldo for six years at United and the two eras do overlap, with Ronaldo having taken on Henry while the latter was still playing for Arsenal.

Ferdinand believes that said "beef" stems from a fractious clash between the two clubs in 2005, when United won 4-2 at Highbury and Ronaldo and Henry appeared to clash. He also says that Ronaldo - who played for Brazil, Real Madrid and Barcelona in a legendary career - has a disagreement with Cristiano, because the latter's emergence led to the World Cup winner being labelled "fat Ronaldo".

Ferdinand told Andreas Poke on a podcast about Ronaldo: "There's beef there somewhere you know. It's cause of the name. I think because of the name, as if he says, 'You took my name,' so I have a problem with you."

He added: 'It's the same with Thierry [Henry]. Thierry is the same. The way I see Thierry talk about Cristiano, it's more what he doesn't say. He doesn't talk about him with any zest or spark. It's like he's downplaying Cristiano a lot.

"There was a clip at Highbury when Henry slaps him on the back of his head or something like that and Cristiano pushes him off. Cristiano then scored the winner and Henry's taking the kick-off with the goalscorer in the background. There seems like there's a little bit of a subplot story that maybe makes it with Thierry and it's probably still in his mind in moments like that."

Ronaldo is continuing to score goals for Al-Nassr and Portugal and will next be in action on Tuesday in an international friendly against Slovenia. He missed the Selecao previous outing, but is back in the mix for this one as Roberto Martinez's side step up preparations for Euro 2024.